Objectief boomerang (Vandersteen comic)/plot
Biggles is summoned on board an aircraft carrier. It is about to pick up a space probe which has just landed on the Moon and returned to Earth with a sample of moondust. The captain tells Biggles the moondust must be safely delivered to the Pentagon where scientists can study it for the source of some mysterious radiation. However the deadly criminal syndicate, the Hawk organisation, is known to be after the sample. Biggles' mission is to guard the moondust and see it safely delivered to its destination. The space probe is recovered and the cannister of moondust is placed in a secure vault. Biggles and the captain are locked into the heavily guarded cabin of the vault and will stay there until the carrier arrives in port. A few days pass without incident but then a frogman from Hawk sneaks aboard. He knocks out the guards with some gas shells and then plants gas in the ventilation system of the cabin. The captain and Biggles both try to summon help but are also knocked out. The frogman, a safecracker, proceeds to work on the combination lock of the safe. After many tries, he succeeds but is then shot! The vault has been booby trapped and will shoot anyone who opens it except for the captain. The ship's crew is alerted when the captain fails to make the hourly call to the bridge. Biggles and the captain are rescue. The moondust is untouched but the frogman is dead. The captain now surprises Biggles with new orders. The moondust has been packed into a watertight belt. Biggles must don scuba gear and swim ashore to the coast of South America where further instructions will await him. Meanwhile the carrier will steam towards port normally as a diversion. Biggles departs the carrier unnoticed and swims ashore and is picked up by a fisherman named Ramos, an agent of I.S. (an international intelligence organisation) who brings him to his hut. A flying boat arrives, piloted by another I.S. agent, Dorothy Morley, who has orders to ferry Biggles to Base Boomerang, an I.S. base in the mountains. Ramos advises Dorothy to delay her flight because of bad weather but Dorothy has a tight schedule so she and Biggles take off. A radio message comes in for Ramos asking him to recall Dorothy but it is too late. The aircraft is struck by lightning and the radio and most of the instruments stop working. Biggles takes the controls and attempts to evade the mountaintops in the worsening visibility but one of the floats of the flying boat strikes a rock. The aircraft is losing fuel and the engines shut off so Biggles makes a hasty crash landing on a plateau. Biggles drags Dorothy out of the wreckage. Dorothy has a deep cut on her head but she says they must press on, on foot, to where they can be picked up by rescue aircraft. They set off but take shelter in a cave to pass the night. At dawn they are spotted by a search plane from the I.S. base. However, a twin engine aricraft from Hawk also appears and begins to attack. The I.S. plane is unarmed but the pilot skilfully leads his pursuer through a ravine and pulls up suddenly. The Hawk plane following him does not react fast enough and crashes into the rockwall. The I.S. search plane drops supplies and gives them directions to the base but Dorothy is too exhausted to travel and so they lie up for another night in a tent. During the night, Biggles hears aircraft engines and surmises that only Hawk has reason to search for them by night. He is concerned that they may be dropping parachutists. Biggles' fears are proven correct when the I.S. plane returns to drop supplies and is shot down by a Hawk machine gun team. Biggles and Dorothy flee for their lives but find that they are trapped in a ravine. Biggles tells Dorothy to make for the I.S. base, which must be nearby, while he serves to distract the machine gun team. Dorothy gets away but then Biggles discovers something strange: the machine gun seems only interested in cutting off his retreat but allows him to proceed in the direction of the base.... Dorothy soon learns why. She arrives at the base and asks the men there to quickly go to help Biggles but they only laugh. It turns out that they are Hawk men and they have taken over the base! Soon there comes an announcement for Biggles on a loudhailer: he must turn over the belt with the moondust or Dorothy will be killed. Biggles realises the belt is his trump card and decides to hide the belt and then go to Dorothy's rescue but he collapses from hunger and thirst before he can execute his plan. Biggles wakes up to find that he, like Dorothy, has his arms tied up behind his back, being kept a prisoner in a hut at the base. The Hawk men are delighted with their success and shoot up the base radio and prepare to depart in their plane. They decide to shoot Biggles and Dorothy to eliminate witnesses but Dorothy sees a man approaching with a gun and decides to take her only chance. She smashes her shoulder against the door in the face of the approaching man. The man shoots through the door but Biggles and Dorothy stand to either side and are unharmed. Meanwhile two trucks full of troops from I.S. approach the base, forcing the Hawk man to abandon his plan to kill the witnesses and beat a hasty retreat to the waiting plane. The I.S. troops open fire at the plane but it manages to take off. Biggles and Dorothy are rescued. Biggles however feels disappointed that Hawk managed to get the moon dust after all. Not so, says the leader of the I.S. rescue team. Biggles' mission was a decoy. The real moon dust remained on the carrier and had since been delivered to its destination safely. Meanwhile, the belt Biggles was carrying contains a powerful explosive for the benefit of Hawk. As if to confirm this, they hear an explosion as the Hawk plane disintegrates. Evidently the Hawk men could not resist opening the belt to look at its contents! Category:Plot summaries (derivative works)